


ready or not

by LilacsAndLilies



Series: Tumblr Asks/Prompt Fill Drabbles [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Especially Tony, Fluff, Gen, How Do I Tag, Humor, IronDad and SpiderSon, My first irondad fic, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Is a Good Bro, These two are such geniuses, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, but they have no idea about how emotions work, except he doesn't want to admit to it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23420380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacsAndLilies/pseuds/LilacsAndLilies
Summary: Peter is staying over at the tower for the weekend for the first time and Tony absolutely was not panicking about it. Absolutely not.(He absolutely was)
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Tumblr Asks/Prompt Fill Drabbles [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674778
Comments: 15
Kudos: 174





	ready or not

“You have a call from May Parker.” Friday’s voice rang out through the lab. 

“Pick it up Fri.” Tony heard a beep. “Hello May.”

“Stark, I need to ask you for a favor."

Tony paused at the abrupt statement. “Of course, May. What’s wrong?” He started running down all the possible things that could have happened. Without realizing, he had walked over to his suit, getting ready to go down to the Parker residence if necessary. 

“I have a conference this weekend that I need to go to, and I don’t want to leave Peter home alone. Would you mind just checking in on him every once in a while?”

Tony let out a sigh of relief. Nothing serious then. Then the sentence registered in his head. “So Peter’s going to be home alone?”

“Yeah. He’s been home alone before, but it’s the first time after I learnt about his night time activities, and I don’t want him to just take advantage of this and go out on patrol all weekend.” 

Tony was still getting used to her mentioning Peter’s Spider-Maning without any bitterness in her voice. She had found out about Peter’s vigilante identity a few months ago now, and almost every interaction Tony had with her the first 2 or 3 months following that had been tense. Slowly, the feisty Italian woman had calmed down and started to trust him a little more, something Tony was endlessly thankful for. It meant Peter was allowed to come over to the tower after school twice a week and work in the lab. Tony would never admit it out loud, but the spiderling was growing on him, and he started to think about their lab times and some of the best parts of his week. Sometimes he wanted to ask if maybe Peter would like to stay overnight, or come over more, but it always felt like he was starting to ask for too much. He was a mentor, nothing more, he didn’t have the right to ask for more time.

Still, here was May, giving him an opportunity, and he was nothing if not an opportunist. It wasn’t like he was trying to parent the kid or anything. He was just… worried about Peter’s safety. Peter was his responsibility of course, and as a mentor, it would be perfectly within his bounds to offer his services and have Peter over for the weekend.

“Tony?” May called out his name and Tony snapped out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, sorry May. I was… trying to find something. Uh- why don’t you just leave Peter here for the weekend? He comes over every Friday evening anyway. I can just drop him at school on Monday.” Tony immediately regretted offering as soon as he finished speaking.

May was silent and Tony knew she was about to tell him that she didn’t trust him to watch her kid. He opened his mouth to apologize and retract his offer before she spoke. “Are you sure?”

No, he absolutely was not sure. “Of course. Would make it easier to watch over the kid.” His brain was screaming at him to abort the mission.

“Well, if you’re sure. I’ll ask Peter. He’ll text you if that ends up being the plan.”

Tony couldn’t believe she had actually agreed. Last he checked, May didn’t trust him to take care of her child. What was new here? He nodded, before realizing she couldn’t see him. “Okay sure. I’ll wait for that text. Hope you have a good day and a wonderful conference.”

“You too. Bye.” Tony could hear the amusement in the other woman’s voice as the phone clicked and the call ended. Did he sound too eager? Was that why she was so amused? What if she wasn’t being serious?

A text from Peter would confirm if she was serious or not. ‘Hey Fri, did Peter text me yet?”

“No boss.” He looked down at his phone, trying to will the text into existence. He tried to focus back on the project, but kept looking back at his phone every couple seconds, before eventually giving up and just staring at his phone. He knew Friday would let him know when he got a text, but his own nerves wouldn’t settle.

What seemed like hours later, Tony got a text from Peter.

**Underoos**

> hey! 

> may told me you offered for me to stay at the tower this weekend

> are you sure its ok?

Yup. La casa di Stark is always open for spider-babies that need supervision. <

> i don’t need supervision 😠 but thanks for doing this anyway

> may says i absolutely do need supervision so i guess i’ll be there all weekend

> see you then

See you kid. <

Tony put away his phone. “Fri, what’s the day of the week?”

“It is Thursday, boss.”

Thursday! He had less than two days to get ready for Peter! What was he going to need to get so that the tower was ready for a teenager for the weekend? Peter had only ever really stayed in the lab before this, so he didn’t really have anything anywhere else. He was going to need to get some snacks and get a room ready for Peter and maybe get games or a movie or something to keep the kid entertained. What did kids even do these days? Play video games or something? But this was Peter, the kid barely had enough time to come to the lab, let alone do anything else. He stretched himself so thin with school and academic decathlon and Spider-Man.

“Fri, get some painters in one of the guest rooms. We need to make the room fit for Peter.” He knew, realistically, that Peter was only going to use it for this weekend, but he wanted Peter to be comfortable. Plus maybe he could be in his ro- guest room instead of the med bay next time he got hurt. It would be good for him to have one with some of his stuff just in case. 

“Which room would you like to be Peter’s? What colors should it be?”

“Uh- let’s go with red and blue for the colors. Gotta stick with the brand. As for which room… put him in the guest room closest to mine.”

“Of course boss.” Tony thought he heard a teasing voice from the AI.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Friday didn’t respond. He huffed at her before settling down to keep working on his project, occasionally yelling out for Friday to order things for Peter’s room.

* * *

“Hey Pep.” They were both sitting at the dining table, starting their takeout meal. “May said she’s gonna be out of town for the weekend. Peter’s going to be staying with us.”

“Oh, that’s great! I’m always busy when he’s around. It’ll be nice to talk to him more.” She pulled at a bit of fried rice from Tony’s plate.

“That’s it? No questions? I was expecting more of a reaction." Tony put down his chopsticks, looking over at his fiancée.

"I don't know what you were expecting me to say. I'm excited to spend more time with Peter. Anyone can see how much both of you care about each other and I'm happy that May trusts you enough to take care of him. You're a lot softer with him around, it's a nice look on you."

Tony didn't say anything about that. It was getting too close to him caring, to him feeling like a-. He changed the topic. "I was getting a room prepped for him, the guest room near ours. Though it would be good for him to have a room here, just in case."

"In case huh?" Pepper smiled at him. “Not because you want your pseudo-son closer or anything?” She gave him a teasing look.

He dropped his chopstick. “I- he’s not my son.” Tony tried to deny the statement but his voice sounded weak even to himself. “I just mentor him. No parenting involved.”

Pepper chucked. “The sooner you accept it, the sooner both of you can really be comfortable with each other. He needs a father figure in his life, and you’ve been stretching yourself to fit that space, whether you know it or not.”

Tony tried to ignore how his subconscious, as it tried to tell him his fiancée was right. Instead, he just pointed a chopstick at her, trying to turn around the conversation. "And how would you know what he feels like? You've barely interacted with him."

Pepper smiled. "Doesn't mean I don't have May Parker's phone number. It's nice to talk to another woman about our genius boys who completely lack common sense."

"Hey, I take offense to that. I have common sense." Pepper gave him a look. "Sometimes."

She just laughed and Tony dropped the point in favor of listening to his beautiful fiancée.

* * *

The next day Tony set out to make sure everything was set. The painters and movers had come in and everything was set. He had a few clothes ordered in case Peter needed them, complete with nerdy puns. He got some Star Wars stuff, before racking his brain for anything else. The pantry was set with snacks. Hopefully, if he needed anything, they could just go to the lab. He would be fine.

Tony didn’t have any meetings that day, so he just went down to the lab, hoping to get something done. Once again, he was unsuccessful at being productive, instead worrying about if Peter would like the room. Didn’t Peter have a bunk bed? He should have gotten that instead. He opened his mouth to tell Friday to call May and ask, before closing it again. May would just tell him he was overreacting. He probably was overreacting. But he needed to make sure everything was set for Peter. If this didn’t go well then Peter would decide that he didn’t want to spend his time up here with some old man and then their lab times would stop. Tony could feel himself panicking and tried to take a deep breath. It would only make things worse for him to be like this when Peter showed up in- Tony checked his watch- two hours. 

He got up and started pacing around his lab, periodically looking at his watch as the minutes passed away. One and a half hour, One hour, 30 minutes, 10 minutes, slowly the clock ticked down. Tony fidgeted with a gadget and messed with some blueprints, all the while tapping his foot and checking the time. 

Finally Friday called out. “Mr. Parker has arrived.” 

Tony jumped out of his seat before forcing himself back. They hadn’t gotten to the unusual stuff yet. This was still a normal lab meeting. He would be ok. 

Soon enough, Peter came bouncing into the lab. "Hey Mr. Stark! I'm so excited to spend the weekend with you!" Tony saw an extra bag slung over Peter's shoulder.

"Set your stuff down and c'mon. Lots of progress to be made in the next few days." Tony gestured to an empty corner with a smile on his face. He wiped the grease off his hand before getting up. "Did you have anything to eat? You're probably hungry aren't you?" Tony headed to a cabinet and pulled out some granola bars before throwing them at Peter. He watched as the teenager lifted a hand up to catch it without turning around. "I will never get used to watching you do that."

Peter looked up from the homework he pulled out. He smiled at Tony when he saw the granola bar. "It's pretty handy."

"That it is." Tony sat back down at his table. His nerves had subsided when Peter came in, but they were slowly starting to rise again. He shook his head, instead focusing on Peter's rambling about his day and the project at hand.

* * *

Without the daily call from May telling him to send Peter home, the two worked a little later into the day, only interrupted when Pepper walked in. "Both of you get cleaned up and come to the dining room. It's dinner time. I ordered Thai."

She stood at the door and tapped her heel lightly on the ground, a reminder that she was waiting for them. Peter quickly stuffed his things into his backpack and picked up both of his bags. Tony simply closed out his blueprints and got up. He wrapped his arms around Pepper and placed a kiss on her cheek. "Coming."

Tony looked behind them to see Peter smiling. "You can drop those off in your room before eating."

"My room?" Peter stopped walking, looking at Tony with a confused expression.

Tony felt the nerves coming back. This was test number one. Hopefully Peter liked his room. He tried to hide his reaction, pasting his usual nonchalance on his face. "You're here often enough. Thought it would be good for you to have a room of your own. Might be useful for when you get injured and require prolonged bed rest… again." He tossed a mock glare at the teenager.

Pepper gripped his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze before pulling away. "I'll wait for both of you." She walked into the hallway.

Tony tried not to look back at Peter, instead gesturing over his shoulder for the teen to follow him. He led them down the halls to Peter’s room. “This is your room. That...” He gestured over to the room across the hall, “is my room. So if you need anything just walk across the hall.”

Peter just nodded and Tony opened the door. Peter dropped his bags, his mouth falling wide open with them. The room was painted in full spiderman colors with movie memorabilia and new gadgets all around. In the center, was a full king bed. “Mr- Mr. Stark! This is too much. I didn’t- I- You didn’t need to get me all of this.”

“I know I didn’t need to, but I wanted to.” Tony lied. He absolutely needed to. How else was he going to show Peter that Tony wanted to do this, that it wasn’t just something he was resigned to? “So… do you like it?”

Peter had stepped forward to look at the room, but at that sentence, he spun around. “Like it?” Tony braced himself to Peter’s reaction. Of course he wasn’t going to like it. It was too tacky, or there wasn’t enough or- “I love it.” 

Tony’s head snapped up at Peter. “You do?” He couldn’t even try to hide the surprise and relief in his voice. 

Peter’s eyes grew wide. “How could I not? I still can’t believe you did all of this for me. You really shouldn’t have. I hope you can still return some of this stuff or something because it’s so much and I wouldn’t expect you to do this type of thing for me, I mean, I already felt kinda bad about having to stay here because I would have been totally fine staying at home- not that I’m not grateful that you offered and stuff because I’m really happy and excited to be here, it’s just that I just thought I would get a guest room or something, not my own room. I can’t believe I have my own room at Stark Tower.”

Tony couldn’t help the smile that crept on his face at one of Peter’s classic rambles. “I am not returning any of this. I got it for you. I want you to keep it. I got you a room because- because I wanted you to know that you always have a place here.” Tony blinked. Where did that come from? He had been denying it, even to himself for so long, but he just said it to Peter? This kid was making him too soft.

Peter looked at Tony and Tony could see the start of tears forming in the boy’s eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Peter barreled towards him and gave him a hug. “Thank you so much Mr. Stark.”

Tony froze, before easing into the hug. “No problem kid. We’re there.” He brushed a hand over Peter’s curls. “Now do you want to call me Tony?”

Peter peeked his head out from where he had burrowed under Tony’s sleeve. “Hmm, no.”

Tony pulled away. “Ok, I see how it is.” He put his hands on his hips. “I give you this and you return it with sass and disrespect. Ok. I’ll just go to dinner now then.” He gave a fake pout and walked out, only stopping to look over his shoulder and see Peter grinning and following behind him.

They entered the dining room to see Pepper waiting there for them, plates set out. She got up and walked over to Peter, pulling him into an embrace. Tony smiled at how uncomfortable and shocked Peter looked. “Ms. Potts!”

Pepper gave Peter a warm smile. “Call me Pepper. I’m glad to have a chance to see you outside of our short meetings. I’m sorry that I’ve been so busy that I couldn’t see you before.” 

Peter gave her a shy nod, almost tucking in on himself. “It’s fine Ms. Potts. I’m surprised you wanted to meet me in the first place.” He took a seat at the table and Tony followed.

“Why wouldn’t I want to meet the boy Tony practically adopted. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.” Peter blushed and Tony threw a look at Pepper. He opened his mouth to deny the fact but Pepper gestured at him not to.

“So Peter, how is school…”

* * *

The rest of dinner passed by with pleasantries and conversation. Tony was still scowling from all of the stories Pepper had told Peter about him and his lab accidents. After helping clear the table, Peter had gotten up to go do homework in his room, leaving Tony and Pepper in the kitchen.

Pepper looked over at Tony. “Both of you need to stop this pretend mentor mentee thing you hide behind. He’s such a sweet kid, and anyone can see that he looks up to you. I know your father was terrible, but you’re not the same.”

Tony avoided Pepper’s eyes. “What are you talking about? I just watch over him and mentor him and stuff. That’s it.”

Pepper just gave him a look. “Go, talk to him.” She shooed him away. Tony gave her one last look before walking into the hallway.

He cracked open the door to Peter’s room to see him sitting at a desk, looking at his laptop. “Hey, Pete?”

Peter swiveled around to face Tony. “Mr. Stark? Did you need anything?”

Tony walked in and moved to sit on the bed before deciding against it. “No, uh, actually I just wanted to check on you. See if everything was okay.”

Peter smiled. “Yeah, everything’s okay. I’m just doing homework.”

“Okay, cool. That’s good.” Tony smiled back and moved to walk out of the room.

“Wait.” Tony froze and turned around. “Thank you for doing this. You didn’t have to. I- you’re like a dad to me, and being here with you is kinda cool. It’s nice to have someone else besides May when she’s busy. And I’m glad I know you.” Peter looked down at his hands and was fidgeting with them.

Tony didn’t know what to say. “I-” 

Peter frowned and looked away. “It’s okay if that was too much. I can leave, or tone it down or something.”

“No- No that’s not it, I just-” This was it, Tony thought. He was being forced to accept the things he’d been pretending weren’t real. “I like having you around too, kid.” He took a deep breath, trying to steady his words. “It’s just hard for me to admit to it. I’ve never been one for heartfelt conversations.” He gives a slow chuckle and he watches as Peter smiles. “You’re like a-”, Tony stumbled on the word, trying to get it out of his mouth, “a son to me, as much as I find myself incapable of admitting it. I’m so glad I get to see you grow and I get to be a part of your life, and-” His sentence died out as he lost the words to say. Luckily, he didn’t need to. Peter just beamed at him before coming in for another hug. This time, Tony was more prepared. 

He felt almost lighter, like finally admitting that maybe his father didn’t screw him up to the point where he couldn’t have a healthy parent child relationship with anyone. Maybe he was getting better too. And when Peter said to him, “Thank you, Tony,” he couldn’t help but be excited for anything that was coming next.

**Author's Note:**

> Talk to me on tumblr @lilacsandlilies4  
> or on discord @LilacsAndLilies#4691


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